French President Emmanuel Macron to speak with Russia's Putin on March 29

French President Emmanuel Macron is expected to hold talks with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, over a phone call on March 29. The development has been confirmed by French Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Anne Claire Legendre, TASS reported citing BFM TV. The talks come at a time the Russia-Ukraine war between Moscow and Kyiv continues for a second month. Russia launched a military offensive in Ukraine on February 24. 

While speaking to BFM TV, Anne Claire Legendre stated that the French President has “held a series of long conversations'' with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Legendre stressed that France seeks to keep the “channel for dialogue open.” During the phone call, Macron is expected to talk about planned humanitarian operations for evacuating civilians from Mariupol with the assistance of Greece and Turkey, according to French Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Anne Claire Legendre, as per the TASS report. The previous telephonic conversation between Putin and Macron took place on March 22. 

In response to a question regarding Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remark about Moscow’s plans to take retaliatory visa measures against unfriendly countries, Legendre stated that they were not aware of the approach and added that the measures may be “one of the retaliatory measures” announced earlier by Russia.

It should be mentioned here that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that they were working on a package of measures in response to unfriendly decisions by the "US and its minions," as per the news report. 

French President speaks to Putin & German Chancellor 

Earlier on 12 March, French President Emmanuel Macron had spoken to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. A French Presidency official stressed that there was no agreement from Putin to end the war with Ukraine, The Guardian reported. A German spokesperson revealed that during the telephonic conversation, Scholz and Macron had called for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine.

According to the Kremlin readout of the call, Russian President Putin shared details regarding negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv with Macron and Scholz. He responded to the concern raised regarding the humanitarian situation in Ukraine and accused Kyiv of using civilians as human shields.

(Image: AP)